What's going on with this. I heard young Animal comics are ending with 6 and I don't know what's going on with Vertigo anymore. Is nobody buying them. Should dc just get rid of the imprint
What's going on with this. I heard young Animal comics are ending with 6 and I don't know what's going on with Vertigo anymore. Is nobody buying them. Should dc just get rid of the imprint
i can't speak for young animal, but vertigo is planning a big relaunch late this summer:
https://www.cbr.com/dc-vertigo-relaunch/
I'd love it if this relaunch is along the lines of the original line up of 1993; the dark, quirky DCU books that struggle to find a place of their own.
In addition to the new Sandman Universe of titles, fold the Young Animal books into the Vertigo imprint, add whatever Swamp Thing project Capullo is working on, give us a new Animal Man book and voila!
i wish they'd get garth ennis on a sgt rock book on vertigo. Why on earth he isnt writing war comics for dc i will never know
Sgt. Rock by Ennis, yes please! At least Ennis has a new World of Tanks mini starting up in a month based on the battle of Kursk. I enjoyed the earlier series that was set in Normandy. And of course his latest Punisher Max mini set in Vietnam was pretty good too. Wish it had been an ongoing.
That early 90s vertigo was so strong. Basically half the uk comics industry airlifted in full of E and given the keys. Rereading a lot of those books they read even better now compared to current comics industry. Sadly those days are gone and cant come back but it was one of Dc's very finest moments
I think the main problems Young Animal and Vertigo have right now is vision.
Gerard Way is a good person for Young Animal, but it's possible that he can't make the kinds of commitments that Karen Berger made with Vertigo.
Or DC is holding him back in some way.
Another problem with Young Animal was that after the initial launch and push, there was very little new stuff coming out to keep the imprint in the news. When Vertigo launched, there was a new ongoing, mini-series, graphic novel or trade coming out every month. It was busy. Boom, boom, boom, boom. It was a relentless assault of new material.
Young Animal was kinda left to float once it started.
Vertigo also had the benefit of having a built in readership right from the start. Animal-Man, Doom Patrol, Sandman, Swamp Thing and Hellblazer were well past their normal attrition and had leveled out on readers. The Vertigo launch came with none of them ending and relaunching, so old readers continued on and new readers came in from the buzz of it kicking off. Matter of fact, the biggest title at the time, Sandman, was in the middle of a story arc.
Another thing that helped Vertigo was that it helped pioneer the directions that Image and Dark Horse, among others, have adopted since then. Image, in particular, was a totally different company at the time, looking more like a superhero universe designed to compete against the Big Two's main universe titles.
There really wasn't much else like it at the time.
Today, Vertigo and Young Animal have a lot more competition. Especially from Walking Dead, Saga, Hellboy and other titles that owe more to Vertigo opening the door for their existence than DC or Marvel proper.
So, for DC (or Marvel, which had similar problems with both Strange Tales and MAX) to make an impact in that area again, they really need someone who's going to give it their all to carve out an identity and keep the imprint in the news each month for an extended period of time.
Neil Gaiman might be that person. If he's totally focused on the comics. And the Sandman universe characters do seem to have a strong fanbase, even though they've been out of print for so long.
Grant Morrison, with his recent editing experience at Heavy Metal, could also be someone that could do it.
But either one would need to be given free reign to do what they want as they see fit. Something that's been kinda restrained since New52 started.
More than anything, it will need DC to be serious about making it work. And be in it for the long haul.
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